A Snake's Crutch Book 1

Part 14: Troll in the Dungeon

Over the next few weeks, school stayed incredibly monotonous. Y/N got her knee healed the next morning and it didn't bother her again, and Pansy seemed to forget all about seeing Draco in their dorm, though y/n would sometimes see her staring at him like he was some sort of puzzle for her to figure out. Even then, the days stayed relatively normal. 

One day, however, Draco seemed to have found a new reason to get Harry Potter in trouble. As the girls all sat talking at their table for breakfast one morning, y/n looked up and noticed Potter running with a rather oddly shaped parcel, Weasley right behind him. As y/n watched, the pair ran into Draco, who grabbed the parcel and felt its contents before throwing back it with spite, a flash of jealousy crossing his face, saying something that looked to y/n as a sassy retort. From where y/n was she couldn't hear what the boys were saying to each other, but she could tell they were arguing. 

Right before y/n decided to go get Draco and drag him away from poor Harry Potter, Professor Flitwick walked up to them. Immediately, Draco said something to him, pointing at Potter's parcel. Flitwick nodded and beamed up at Potter, asking him a question. When he answered, Potter was looking at Draco, fighting back the laughter caused by the look on Draco's face. He seemed utterly horrified. Then he said one more thing, leaving Draco in a rage, and left, running up the stairs.

When Draco stomped over, Crabbe and Goyle behind him, y/n asked what had happened. To which, Draco told the girls that Potter had gotten a brand new Nimbus Two-Thousand from the school for making the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

After that, Draco always fell into a sort of bad mood whenever someone mention brooms, or Quidditch, which luckily wasn't often. 

Draco and y/n continued their midnight meetings which now mostly consisted of doing unfinished homework. With the students having learned the basics in all of their classes, the teachers had all moved on to the more interesting bits in their lessons. Professor Snape even had her brewing all the potions that would be put in the hospital wing's stores for extra credit.

Y/N had also been working with Poppy a lot and could now treat any basic minor injury with no help at all, much to many of her patients' chagrin, especially the sixth and seventh years. So Poppy started teaching her more difficult things such as treating muggle diseases. 

By the time Halloween was just around the corner, y/n could hardly believe she had been attending Hogwarts for two months. It felt like only yesterday that she had gotten sorted into Slytherin. What Professor McGonagall had told everyone the night of the Sorting Ceremony was beginning to be more and more true. Slytherin was starting to feel like y/n's second family. Y/N had gotten really close to all of her friends even more so to Sarah, Pansy, and Draco and, though she missed her parent terribly, y/n couldn't imagine spending three months away from her new Hogwarts family.

With Halloween came the Halloween feast, for which everyone was excited, and none of y/n's friends, nor her, could really pay attention in any of their classes in anticipation for all the sweets. 

In Charms, Professor Flitwick had finally decided that the class was ready to learn how to make things fly. Whilst explaining the spell he told them only one first year had done it so far after one try, and y/n immediately knew it was Hermione. She had spoken all about the spells she had been practicing on the Hogwarts express two months before, Wingardium Leviosa being one of the first she mentioned. Y/N had practiced it as well and got it on the first try, making Professor Flitwick cheer, shifting his books, and he tumbled to the floor. 

All of y/n's friends joked about the tiny professor for the rest of the day. When they went down to the Great Lake, all of her friends asked her to show them how to do the charm. Upon teaching them, they made one another float high in the air before putting them up a tree, or on a dry rock just above the deep water. Draco even dropped Blaise in, getting himself chased all the way back to Slytherin Common Room where Blaise stripped himself down to his shorts, throwing his wet clothes at Draco as he chased him into the boys dormitory. 

When dinner finally came, y/n and her friends were some of the first to the Great Hall. When they entered an 'Ooh' arose from them, for the decorations had been changed. Where candles used to float above the tables, Jack-O-Lanterns were suspended in their place with vicious looking faces carved into them. Hanging from the ceiling were thousands of live bats and even more where flying around in swarms over the tables. As the group sat down, a rather large bat swooped over their table and pooped right on Goyle, making everyone burst into a fit of laughter. 

When Goyle didn't join, Blaise said, "Oh, come on, Goyle. Don't get your robes in a bunch. You're just an easy target that's all. Nice and big! It wouldn't have missed!" 

All that did was make everyone else laugh harder, earning Blaise a punch to the jaw. The food appeared then, making everyone, even Goyle, forget about the bat. Everyone dug in, careful not to get so much they wouldn't have room for sweets. 

As y/n loaded a piece of ham onto her plate, Professor Quirrell sprinted into the hall, running straight for Professor Dumbledore. When he got there, he reached for the headmaster's chair and slumped across the table. 

"Troll -- In the dungeon -- thought you ought to know," Quirrell gasped out before he slumped to the floor and passed out. 

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, then there arose a great uproar. All the students were standing, some running for the door. It took Professor Dumbledore multiple purple firecrackers from the end of his wand before the crowd shut up to listen. 

"Prefects, lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!" 

And again the room became thunderous. 

"Slytherin first years! FIRST YEARS! TO THE FRONT!" Blante was shouting as loud as he could and could barely be heard.

As y/n, Draco, and the rest made their way to the front, Pansy began to cry, as did Daphne and Lillith. Katherine took Lillith in her arms and held her, muttering something only Lillith could hear, while Tracey and Millicent clung to Daphne, each holding one of her hands. Sarah shouldered up to Pansy from the right and gave her a side embrace while y/n grabbed both Pansy's hands, leading her friends to the front. Crabbe had started to cry as well but Draco told him that he'd better stop because none of those girls were going to hug him. That seemed to stop the tears fairly quickly. 

As the Slytherins made their way to their dormitories, y/n realized something. Giving Pansy her hands back, y/n moved ahead a bit to find Draco in the crowd. 

"Draco! Draco!" Y/N fought the crowd to find him. Once she did, she grabbed him and pulled him to the side. "Draco, didn't Quirrell say the troll was in the dungeons?"

"Yeah, that's wh--" Draco froze, realizing what y/n had, and looked at where their House was going. "We're walking straight to it."

"We have to get our friends, and hide. There is no way I'm letting them get attacked by a troll."

"Okay, but where do we go?" Draco said, immediately agreeing. 

"We'll figure out something. Get Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle. I'll get the girls."

"Got it." Draco ran to catch up to the boys, disappearing into the crowd.

Y/N ran right behind him, finding the girls. When she was in front of them, she grabbed Pansy and looked at Sarah, who knew what to do. The girls formed a chain and left the group of Slytherins. None of their House mates around them cared enough to stop them, all too worried about themselves.

Once out of the crowd, y/n found Draco and the boys and they all ran around the corner. They weren't running for long when the girls stopped, demanding to know why they weren't going to the safety of their dormitories. 

"Girls, what did Quirrell say," y/n asked urgently. 

"Troll in the dungeon," Sarah said, understanding. "He said the troll was in the dungeon. That's were our dorms are. If we go down there, we run into a troll."

The rest of the girls realized this and stopped crying. They were safe for the time being. 

"Anyone smell that?" Blaise wrinkled his nose. "Ah man! Crabbe, was that you?"

"Wasn't me! Must've been Goyle!" 

The girls watched in disgust as the boys fought over who to blame for the retched smell, until Pansy shrieked, hid behind the girls and began to cry.

"Pansy, what's wrong?" Sarah turned to comfort her. Pansy pointed and everyone followed her finger. Lillith and Daphne began crying again, and the other girls started to panic, for walking down the corridor towards them, was a twelve foot troll.